The only thing better than a spooky book, is a spooky ghost book! Anyone who knows me, knows I live for ghost stories of any variety, which is why I'm thrilled to participate in the Dead Voices blog tour from Penguin Random House. Since I am a huge fan of good middle grade horror, it should be no surprise that I was a huge fan of Small Spaces, Katherine Arden's first book in this series. You know Small Spaces. The one that horror dreamboat RL Stine called "Terrifying and fun." True story. I love how this book starts off. It's the middle of a snow storm and anyo[...]
Category
Haunted Houses
0 You may recall I grew up across from a graveyard. So, now that I think about it, it's no surprise that 66.6% of the books in my personal library are situated in, around, near, or under a graveyard. Here, in no particular order (cover art on a scale of wtf to gtfo) are my personal favorites: Any graveyard books in your book stack?[...]
I'm writing this not only to remind myself that it's true, but also for posterity's sake...in the case it doesn't stop. It started shortly after we moved in. I don't want to say what "it" is, mostly because I honestly don't know. It began with a subtle scrape. Like the sound of a shovel being drug across concrete. It started at night - always after twelve, always before 3. Scrape. Scraaaape. Scraaaaaaaaaaaaaape. At first I was the only one that heard it. I'd nudge Matt awake but by the time he had his wits about him, the noise stopped. I had visions of an alb[...]
Hello Kittens! I have quite the treat for you. As you know, my Midnight Society pals and I ingest horror in a multitude of different ways. We read it, we write it, we play it, listen to it, draw it, design it, and we watch it. We watch a lot of it. Which is why I'm so, SO excited that Christian Ackerman is joining us on the blog today. You may know him from his newest release, RESTORATION, which he acted as both associate producer AND a medic. I could spend the next few paragraphs telling you all about Christian, or I could let the interview b[...]
There are four things in the world that I love: dogs, iced coffee, scary stories, and haunted houses. Since March is our haunted houses month, I thought it would be fun to highlight a real haunted house in my neck of the woods of Southern California. Meet The Whaley House The Whaley House was built in 1857 by a man named Thomas Whaley. It is located at 2476 San Diego Avenue, in old town San Diego. Its architecture is mid-nineteenth century Greek Revival and has been a museum since the 60’s. This two-story house and store was the first two-story brick edifi[...]
'ello Midnighters, Today is Easter, for those celebrating--congrats. (Do you say congrats for this? Idk.) For those who don't celebrate, you probably knows this better as the time with the remarkable, truly remarkable, reese's peanut butter shaped-eggs. They are remarkable (if you hadn't gotten that from the first two remarkable, the third one will have to drive the point home). Now, since we have a Haunted Houses theme this month, I want to share with you a creepy fable with bunnies, because it seems fitting. Haunted House. Bunnies. Stuff. Now, onward to the st[...]
In keeping with our Horror House theme for March, here is some of my research for my manuscript concerning obscure horror house things because this world is a big beautiful bag of weird (all images courtesy of interwebs). Z is for ZARF Y is for YEW X is for XANTHIPPE W is for WIDOW'S WALK V is for VOMITORIUM U is for UCALEGON T is for TILBURY S is for SOLARIUM R is for RUINS Q is for QUARTREFOIL P is for PORTICULLIS O is for OCCULUS N is for NATATORIUM M is for MOTHERHOOD HELPER L is for LANTERN K is for KEWPIE DOLL J is for JIGGUMBOB I[...]
When we decided as a group to write about horror houses this month, my thoughts immediately went to the old delapidated structure that I used to explore as a kid. Back before there were computers, cable TV with eight million channels, Playstations, and cell phones, I had the woods surrounding my house as my sole source of entertainment. Limited technology aside, we knew how to use our imaginations and this run down house/barn was the perfect place to dream it all up. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to explore in a structure that was probably condemmed, but wh[...]
Ken Lamug's THE STUMPS OF FLATTOP HILL brings a long-overdue disturbance to the picture book arena. The cover alone promised me things that I was desperate for the story to keep. And keep them, it did. THE STUMPS OF FLATTOP HILL is an otherworldly cautionary picture book in which dear little Florence accepts a dare to face perils unknown but ends up Doing Something Else And That Is All I Will Say On The Plot Because Reasons. If you want more, go here or here. What I love about Lamug's storytelling is that it's done in fluctuating rhythm[...]
HAPPY March! Since it's the first day of a new month, I get the disctinct honor of being the first to post on our new theme...horror houses! Now, I do have a pretty good memory of one particular scary house from my childhood, but I'm saving that one for later on. Today, I wanted to share with you one of my favorite scary kid movies. Sony created an animated horror where the main character is a haunted house, which scared my kids when they first watched. I will admit that I LOVED watching their reaction, too! My favorite line? "If something[...]